The new reality of keeping clean?

[InBetweenWasp]

In and amongst the Sheedy, MacGinty, Ford merry go round Mako's contract rumours appeared to have slipped under the radar.  Article published in The Telegraph last night that he's struggling to agree terms with Saracens (as is Billy).  This paragraph was particularly interesting:

"Vunipola, along with brother Billy, is out of contract with Saracens at the end of the season and is attracting interest from clubs in France’s Top 14. It is understood that Saracens’ initial offers are far lower than their current deals, which has led to the pair considering their futures away from the club."

Now, there's probably a few players in similar scenarios who will need to take pay cuts as the new rules around the reduced cap kick in - New contracts have 100% of their values counted towards the cap, whereas contract signed before June last year (or was it before July) are only having a portion of their contracts counted for - something like 75% for this year to help ease into a reduced cap.

Ironically, if they continue not to be picked for Saracens you'd have thought their value to the club probably increases with availability.

It's a good job Billy has openly stated previously that he'd be happy to take a pay cut and play fewer games.  It looks like that's the best option for him to stay at Saracens.

[wycombewasp]

or they could cut their pay and slip a couple of houses into their portfolio

[Bloke in North Dorset]

Being a professional sportsman is a short career and I don't have a problem with them wanting to get a good pay day, especially  towards the end of their careers.

I don't know the numbers involved but lets say, for the sake of argument, they manage to earn an extra £100k in their  last 2 years and invest that wisely. Lets also say, again for the sake of argument, that on average they make 2% over and above inflation (that was the long term average, past performance and all that).  After 30 years ie when they are in their mid 60s, that would give them about £180k in today's money, not a trifling about. 5% growth comes in at ~£430k.

Of course its trade-offs: uprooting or being separated from families, good clubs help players in to retirement by supporting them look for new careers etc and that itself might be worth more than the extra money in the long term.

We all have/had to make these difficult choices and in my case all those sorts of choices were aimed at giving my family long term financial security if anything happened to me.

[DGP Wasp]

I think every club in the Premiership can relate to this problem.  We can certainly point to a succession of players who Wasps have reluctantly had to release in order to come in under the cap while meeting the increased wage demands of players as they develop and their value to the team increases.  Sarries probably would ideally like to keep both Vunipolas, but with a salary cap to adhere to now, I can't help feeling this is something of a reality check for them.